Let’s return to a clip round the ear culture

The riots took place during the school holidays, during term the chaos is normally confined to the classrooms of Inner City London, Croydon, Liverpool, Manchester etc. The youthful majority of the rioters are the first generation of children who have grown up in schools where discipline and order have been replaced by child-centric learning and an emphasis on parental choice.

Successive governments have robbed teachers of their ability to control the classroom as they face allegations of assault, human rights or sexual abuse from children and confrontation with parents, who now side with their misbehaving children rather than backing up the educators trying to teach them. These kids know their rights and know they have it in their power to ruin the careers of teachers and escape punishment in a system overly concerned with protecting their interests with reams of checks, balances and the associated paper work.

The Prime Minister has said he wants anyone convicted of violent disorder to be sent to prison. An article in The Guardian by an anonymous magistrate points out how the amount of hoops the police have to jump through to get a conviction will render this impossible, there is no way in the thick of the action they'll be dotting the 'Is' to the degree required by law. Maybe the promises to deprive rioters of the dole and eject them from council houses will see the light of day but I wouldn't count on it.

Underage rioters won't be punished, even if they can be identified and charged. A 15-year-old looter quoted in the Daily Mail said: "They can't touch me, I'm still a kid, what is the worst they can do? Give me a caution or a curfew I won't obey." Any underage person charged will receive an ISSP which is an Intense Surveillance and Supervision Programme and means they'll be required to attend a variety of activities supervised by a youth worker.

The answer has to be a return to a clip round the ear culture - a swift but not excessive punishment that young people will associate with what they have done wrong that does not require loads of form-filling and bureaucracy.

Note to the police: if you see a bunch of skinny kids smashing up your vehicle and setting fire to buildings don't just stand there watching, charge them with your truncheon, it's an immediate deterrent they'll respect, go on just imagine they're students protesting about cuts, or peaceful environmentalists and get in amongst them. A concerted effort by ten trained, disciplined officers armed with shields and batons could have swept the streets clear of a bunch of unruly kids, using ear clippings… with truncheons. Arrest some but administer some swift justice and paper work be damned. By the way, does anyone know where the horses were? Why didn't the police charge rioters, the ultimate ear clip and deterrent factor.

The riots have been the high point of some of these kids', dull and dispiriting lives, giving them an amazing buzz with some free trainers thrown in. Without any punishment we can expect a repeat performance and schools may be in for an even rougher ride, come term time.

A survey from 2010 found that four-fifths of teachers believed behaviour was more challenging than five years ago. Other data supports these findings, that the vast majority of teachers want more power to discipline children and complain that when pupils are excluded from school the decision is often overturned on appeal. Allow teachers to administer clips round the ear too.

These clips I'm talking about don't need to be physical, they simply need to be short, sharp punishments, delivered without paper work or bureaucracy but with consistency and immediacy. If parents try and exercise 'choice' and disagree with their child's treatment they should receive a clip round the ear too.